Recycling Facts

Recycling Facts

Top Facts about Recycling

Do you know the facts about recycling? Many people have a general idea but they don’t know the details. The more you know though about the situation the easier it is going to be for you to decide you need to take more action than you have been. Recycling is believed to be the ideal way for us to cut costs, to improve water and air quality, and to still have the many items that we love.

Do you know how much waste you create on a daily basis? Most of us have no idea but once you find out it will be more than you thought. It is about 4.5 pounds every single day. There are about 236 million tons of trash that end up in our landfills every single day. However, only about 20% of it really needs to be heading that direction.

Education is a huge piece of helping people to learn about recycling. Many people feel that if they had more awareness about how to recycle, items that they can recycle, and where to take those items that they would be doing more. Find out what your community has to offer and share it with others. Then the education can continue to get spread around.

Appliances that people use in their home is believed to waste about 3 trillion gallons of water every single day. This is due to the fact that people often run the dishwasher when it isn’t full. The same with the washing machine. They also set the timer on the dryer to the highest amount of time and then walk away to check on it later.

By changing to the energy efficient appliances though a person is going to be able to really see the difference. They will use lest water and they will be able to reduce money on their utility bills at the same time. If you have appliances that are old it is a good idea to upgrade. You can even get some tax credits when buy certain models too so check into that.

When you are cooking meals think about the energy for your stove too. If you can heat items up in the microwave do so. That is usually faster and you will find it uses half of the energy. Try to create meals so that you only have to use your stove every other day.

The bathroom is the key place in any home where water gets wasted. It is believed that about 75% of the waste is in this room. Make sure you turn the faucet off when you are brushing your teeth or shaving. Limit showers to a set amount of time. Baths should be a luxury though to help with reducing the amount of water used.

When you take a fast shower you will use about 10 gallons of water. If you need a longer one it may be up to 25 gallons at a time. However, the average bath will easily use up to 70 gallons of water. If you have any types of leaks with your faucets you need to get them taken care of. About 3,000 gallons of water can be wasted annually if you allow it to continue.

Watch the amount of water that you use outdoors too. About 30% of what the average family uses it going for landscaping. You may want to change what your yard looks like to cut down. For example have some grassy areas but then you can also have some rock designs. Collect rainwater through the gutters to help you water trees and plants.

Electricity is wasted due to the volume of electronics that are used. Don’t leave them on when you don’t need them. Millions of people leave the TV on as they drift off to sleep or the radio. So they are on all night long and that is wasteful. Consider a timer if you need such noise to comfort you as you fall to sleep. Then your devices will automatically shut off after an hour or whatever time frame you select.

You can also use energy saving modes on your mobile phones an computers when you aren’t using them. Don’t plug in a charger to the wall for a video game console or mobile phone for longer than you need to either. It should only take an hour or two for you to obtain a full charge.

Recycling paper is a very good idea. There are 17 trees that don’t have to be cut down every time a ton of paper is recycled. That process also reduces the amount of water that is used by 7,000 gallons. The savings continues with 2 barrels of oil not being used and 4,000 kilowatts of electricity being saved.

Air pollution is 74% less with recycled paper than when it is being made from raw materials. There are very good rates with recycling paper. About half of what is used in a typical office setting gets recycled. Over 70% of newspapers are also being recycled.

Aluminum is a common type of material that we fail to recycle like we should. One of the many reasons to do it though is that 95% of the energy it takes to create new aluminum from raw materials is saved. There are about 100 million cans made from tin every day in the United States. Right now about half of them are being recycled.

Glass is a very common item that can be recycled due to the durability of it. About 25% of the glass that is used for jars and bottles is recycled. Every single year enough of it gets recycled that we could lay it out to the moon and then half way back to Earth. The goal is to make it enough in one year to reach the moon and all the way back again.

Every single year 25 million plastic bottles are used in the United States. They are mainly offering water, soda, and other drinks. Yet only about 27% of that plastic is being recycled. The rest of it is going to the landfills or it ends up at the bottom of the oceans and other bodies of water. More effort has to occur to increase plastic recycling.

Styrofoam products are offered such as cups and for packaging. However, there is nothing about this material that can be recycled at all. There is enough of this problematic material in the landfills already to stretch around the world 400 times.

Junk mail is a huge problem in our society. There are over 150,000 trees being destroyed every single year to create it. That savings would be enough to heat 250,000 homes for a full year. Get on the list to stop junk mail from coming to you.

Motor oil is a huge problem for the environment. 1 gallon of it can cause damage to a million gallons of water. Make sure you know how to recycle the motor oil in your community. When you get your oil changed at a station they will do it for you. If you change your oil at home though it is going to be your responsibility.

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